You can say Sunday’s result was an apt conclusion to the symbolic end of the season’s first half – that the Padres were done once they went down three runs in the fourth inning.

Difficult to argue against that, actually.

But a 4-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds did nothing to alter what you should be thinking in regard to the Padres at this point.

C’mon, the Padres’ 2012 season was over five starting pitchers ago, over when Orlando Hudson was allowed to make 37 starts, over when Chris Denorfia became the team’s only (semi-) regular to be hitting .300 going into Sunday.

But this is not about now. This isn’t about what might have been, because it never was going to be much of anything. It’s not even so much about the remaining 2½ months in this season.

This is about believing in the power of experience, in the promise of youth and that some season soon we can look back and believe all this losing somehow served a purpose.

Chase Headley may or may not become the latest good player to be traded away from San Diego. Regardless, he is at present one of just six Padres on the 25-man roster who has been with the team for more than three seasons and, thus, qualifies as a seasoned veteran with some perspective to give.

“When we’re in the situation we’re in, you sometimes have to take a step back to take two steps forward,” Headley said Sunday. “You bring guys in here who are going to be a part of your near future and give them an opportunity. That’s something that needs to happen.”

Let’s hope so. If for no other reason than it’s all we have.

Losing 99 games (their current pace) won’t do much to make us think differently of this Padres season than we would have had they stayed on their 109-loss pace of June 11.

But if young Padres keep progressing as they have been …

Even losing three straight going into the All-Star break, the Padres have won 14 of their past 26 games (since June 12). That’s almost one third of their season so far. They were 21 games under .500 in the previous 61 games.

“It reminds me a little bit of 2009,” Headley said. “In the second half, we really played well. Guys got experience. Guys learned they could compete in the big leagues.”

The 2010 Padres, even with the majors’ second-lowest payroll, missed the postseason by one game.

This team will need to bring in at least one proven offensive weapon and sprinkle the roster with a few other veteran players if it wants to make that kind of jump again, but Headley’s point is that improvement has to start somewhere.

It’s merely a snapshot, but it’s revealing to compare the lineups during the Padres’ six-game losing streak that ended May and their six-game win streak that bridged June and July.

In those games two months ago, Bud Black never used the same eight players in consecutive games and did not repeat lineups once in the six-game stretch. Three players who started games during those half-dozen stinkers have since been dispatched to the minors.

In the winning streak that began June 30, Black used the same lineup three times. Players that will be a big part of 2013 and beyond played key roles in the victories.

Look, the Padres are still stranding too many runners on the still-too-rare occasions they get them on.

“This year, next year, we have to do better,” Black said. “These guys that are in now have to do better.”

Their bullpen is not what it used to be and not what it will be.

“They’re still a ways away from being who they can be,” Black said.

Their defense isn’t booting games the way it was seemingly daily back in April and May, but Black and his coaches continue to coach their rear ends off, often having to remind guys where to be and when to be there.

“There is a teaching component every day.” Black said.

Just 11 players on the current 25-man roster were Padres on Opening Day. Denorfia was the only player in the lineup on Sunday not in his 20s. Half of the eight position starters don’t yet have 1,000 major-league plate appearances.

But they’re much improved over a month ago. And they’ll be better in a month, regardless of the results.

“Nothing beats experience for a player at this level,” Black said “… They’re better off to be here to see what a major-league game is like.”

Not that it doesn’t help to win. It’s positive reinforcement. It’s one thing for Logan Forsythe to go 2-for-4 with a home run in a loss. It’s better for him to go 1-for-4, move a runner over on a grounder to second and hear afterward from a coach how he never missed being in the right spot defensively and how that contributed to a victory. Then he knows what it takes not just to play, but to win.

“We’ve gotten experience in how to play this game,” said rookie first baseman Yonder Alonso. “Things are starting to work out for us. It can only go up from here.”

See, this is not about now, other than to to say what has been happening lately could help make what happens in the future much more enjoyable.